Cerf's out; time for caution on ed reforms

Christopher Cerf's imminent departure as the state's education commissioner raises plenty of questions at a time when the state is in the midst of significant education reforms. Such uncertainty is to be expected when any cabinet member jumps ship at a pivotal time. But there's something more here, something bubbling underneath the surface that doesn't smell quite right.

Let's start with Cerf's new job, as CEO of Amplify Insight, an education firm self-described as providing professional services to help teachers assess student needs and determine progress. Cerf has said that he doesn't see any ethical conflicts and that he's not even sure if his new company is already doing business with New Jersey schools. Fact is, however, that as commissioner, Cerf has been busy propping up the controversial new "Common Core" standards for testing students and evaluating teachers that many critics believe are being rushed into place, at high costs and with uncertain benefits.

If school districts struggle with the implementation of the new standards, and test results plummet as a result of a mishandled transition, guess which company would be able to exploit those struggles by offering their services? Amplify Insight. A two-year ban on Cerf and Amplify doing any business with New Jersey schools should be in order with Cerf on board.

The concerns here, however, go beyond Cerf's new gig and the potential conflicts involved. Teachers say rushing the new system into place is setting them up for failure, with insufficient time - and money - to properly adjust curricula to meet the new standards. That hurts students as well as teachers whose jobs and compensation will be increasingly tied to student performance, as gauged by standardized tests under the still-evolving teacher evaluation process.

Across the border in New York, education officials have taken a step back and delayed full implementation of Common Core for five years after a disastrously mismanaged rollout in which test scores tanked. New Jersey should proceed with similar caution, to assure the desired reforms are done right, not just fast. Unfortunately, the overriding agenda of Gov. Christie and his administration snakes through all of this with its own brand of venom.

New Jersey schools are among the highest-achieving schools in the nation. The overwhelming majority of the schools are succeeding. The state's education problems are centered in its poor urban districts where socioeconomic factors create challenges for which schools can only do so much to compensate. Reform efforts should be focused in those areas, in the hope that different educational models might be better able to adapt to those special challenges.

Those are the facts, but that hasn't been Christie's message, certainly not in the earlier days of his first gubernatorial term. Christie arrived in office bashing teachers, trashing public education in New Jersey and gutting school aid. Some of those themes have been tempered a bit over time, thanks in part to the backlash against Christie's warped view of New Jersey school performance. But there remains a strong sense that Christie and other supportive officials feel they have a point to prove about public schools, a "gotcha" mentality that would be fed by throwing districts to the wolves as they scramble to adapt to the new standards.

Cerf's successor will undoubtedly be on board with Christie's policies. But that person also needs to come into the job with an open mind about proper introduction of Common Core, and the broad embrace of charter schools, among other initiatives. New Jersey needs reforms that work, not those shaped to advance an anti-public education agenda.

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Cerf's out; time for caution on ed reforms

Christopher Cerf's imminent departure as the state's education commissioner raises plenty of questions at a time when the state is in the midst of significant education reforms.

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